The long-range goal of this research is to control or regulate the loss of nitrogen and wasting complications associated with diabetes and several other diseases. One aspect of this research involves establishing how hormones, or the lack of certain hormones, influence the process of intracellular protein turnover in particular tissues. In this proposed project the consequences of alloxan- or streptozotocin-induced diabetes on the rates of synthesis and degradation of a spectrum of intracellular proteins and two specific enzymes in mouse liver will be assessed. More specifically, we will determine the effects of diabetes on a) the turnover of long-lived and short-lived proteins separated from supernatant fractions of mouse liver, b) the turnover of aldolase or arginase in liver, and c) intracellular proteases and protease inhibitors in liver. The mechanism of degradation of aldolase and arginase by lysosomal and other cellular proteinases will also be studied. The goal is to elucidate mechanisms used by living systems to degrade intracellular proteins and regulate the concentrations of proteins in general as well as specific enzymes.